Maya or Max? Advice please.

[mv]

click here.. (http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19315)

and yes, Maya PLE runs on XP home.

[boboroshi]

It depends what you can afford. the PLE has watermarked renders, however, a full version is much less than max.

Traditionally, maya has been used more in film, and max more in architecture and games.

At the end of the day - what can you get work done in? A tool that someone else can do amazing things in is useless. I would try out both.

[Mr.Black]

you can get max for a 30 day trial period. thtas the full version of it wit full functionalit. U can get that at www.discreet.com

I think it basically comes down toe what you are comfortable with. Give them both a months go and the decide or just decide right now. They are both used in films, games, and pretty much everywhere 3d applies. they bothe have their weak and strong points. However learning both of them isn't bad either. Knowing more then one app is always a plus :)

[SpaXe]

I think both are okay. Just a little different from these software but after all the artists and programmer's building pulg-ins, scripts and MELs, they are both good software to use. Maybe you can go download their trial version to use....Max only support 30 days, so you have to use faster and drain more; Maya PLE although has no limit time, but the panel UI and rendered picture are very bad (there will be a lot of words around your picture just like your textures writes 'Do not copy') but you can use it slowly. And you have to save the file in .mp format...not .mb or .ma (standard Maya file format) but it's okay.

After download you have to try, so go to their site to see some basic tutorials and how to use. then start to feel which one you like more and you feel right.

I use Maya, but I don't just like Maya. Maya has a lot of Tools and Actions to stand on the floor but have no others' tools either. Then I have to write MEL to plug it. And do more on it.

Another saying is Maya is useful to build NURBS, and almost movies and films use NURBS to modeling; Max is great on Polygons, and polys is good in games, because of its fast real-time hardware render.

Just feel the RIGHT!

[tsunami4you]

if you wana do something professional about it you should go with maya!

[ChrisBG]

Thanks for all the advice :) I'm downloading the 30 day trial of 3dsmax. Can Maya LE open other vidoes, and add models? (like, adding a 3d character to a real-film). Or is this only in the whole version you pay for?

-Chris

[ThirdEye]

Originally posted by tsunami4you
if you wana do something professional about it you should go with maya!

Go with whatever you like and learn modeling and animation, both the programs are very widespread.

[ThirdEye]

Petrik: software battles aren't allowed and usually threads like this cause nothing but flames, forcing us to close the thread; anyway he wanted a comparison between max and maya, this is the 2nd post like that you drop in the forum.

[JasonA]

I'm a user of both 3ds max and Maya, Maya being the app that I use full time. I had 3ds max first, I bought an educational version while I was a senior at university. After graduating and saving up money from my job, I bought a commercial license of Maya. Since I can make money with my work in Maya, I use it exclusively, although I still play around with max sometimes. I like both, so let me toss out a few observations.

Both apps are appearing in films and games, more so now than ever before. However up until recently it was primarily accepted that Max was used in games and architecture more than Maya and Maya was favored by large film studios. Today that is changing quite a bit. Max has been used in quite a few movies for major effects shots, not just the opening credits (for example, Armaggedon, the CORE) and Maya, after its price reduction, is now appearing in more games work (E.A. for example). Which one you go with should ultimately be decided on by how your are wired mentally - a call you have to make for yourself.

In general, max is easier to learn and more artistically focused. Its a more consolidated app and has had the benefit of a 10 year+ life cycle. Many common problems people come upgainst have been solved in max right down to the "click a checkbox" style solution. This is good and its bad. Bad in the sense that max is a bit harder to do the 'un-conventional' things with, because they have tried to anticipate anything you might ever want to do and provide you a checkbox for it. However if what you want to do has no checkbox, you can be effectively screwed because max's innards are less open-architecture. But for alot of everyday things, this is not an issue.

Maya is a very open-archeticture type application which, with some programming skills, can be expanded in almost every sense. Modeling tools, GUI, plugins -- you name it. I think this is why its so heavily favored by large film studios. Maya's NURBS modeling toolset is excellent compared to most other apps that have NURBS tools (max's implemenation sucks IMO). Maya has many effect capabilities built in, which in max have to be achieved by purchasing additional plugins. however, Maya is harder to learn, as it is a very complex package and isn't laid out as intuitively (IMO) as other apps. One person once said "simple things are complicated, but complicated things are simple". its a great way to summarize maya. So getting into the workflow takes a bit more effort. In order to take advantage of alot of the expanding capabilities of Maya you have to be a programmer or at least comfortable with programming (mel scripting language).

I guess what it boils down to IMO is this: If you're technically minded and want to work alot in films, consider Maya. If you're more artistically oriented, and want to work in a wide range of possible fields, consider 3ds max.

I suspect that if you take the 3ds max 6 spec sheet and the upcoming maya 6 spec sheet and compare, the toolset will be so similair that ultimately you'll have to decide based on what interface and workflow you like the best :)

[bastiaan]

*cough* download it .. kazaa *cough* *cough* :rolleyes: :lightbulb

[orion 77]

theres always lightwave and softimage xsi demos - just to make your choice even harder.:p
xsi is gaining a lot of acclaim nowadays.

[Rick Flowers]

I'll be a friend and answer the question as an individual with some experience in both programs.

He asked, "Maya or Max?"

My answer is: Maya.

[Rumr]

Ive been using maya for about 2 months. Its great but its not to good in polys. But i think i need to learn my way around things. But i really like it. I tryed XSI for 2 weeks and liked it as well.

[Rick Flowers]

I beg to differ. You can do anything with polys in Maya. It's 200% powerful. If you even want more, get ByronsPolyTools. Very cheap too.

:beer:

Maya's UI is much better than Max in my opinion. The Hypershade for example alone is worth it. Maya is just great.. and I used to use Max.

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